Internationally Known Concert Organist Plays at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Yuko Hayashi, internationally known concert organist, will perform Sunday, September 30th, at 3 p.m. in the Joseph Memorial Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross.  The concert is free and open to the public.

As part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, the program will include solo organ work by Johann Sebastain Bach.  Hayashi will be accompanied by Rie Shimizu, an internationally accomplished flutist, in performing "Miracles," a wide array of compositions by the late Boston composer, Daniel Pinkham.  This concert, as well as the entire 2007-2008 Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, is dedicated to the memory of Pinkham, who died in December of 2006.

Hayashi is the executive director for the Old West Organ Society in Boston and professor of organ emeritus at the New England Conservatory.  Performing around the world has helped her to explore an authentic approach to historical repertoire of many styles and periods.  She has recorded on King’s Records, CBS Sony, and her recording of Bach at Old West is available on the Classical Masters label. She will serve as president of the jury for the 2008 Musachino International Organ Competiton in Japan. Hayashi is also an artist faculty member of the Boston Organ Academy and an honorary member of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Shimizu, a pioneer of new music for the flute, has performed and given master classes around the world.  She studied flute in her native Japan and in the United States under the former first flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Doriot Anthony Dwyer, at Boston University.  She has recently completed a new CD of modern flute music.

Pinkham, one of America’s most active and most-performed composers, taught at New England Conservatory from 1958 until 2000.  In addition to composing, he was an organist, harpsichordist, conductor, pioneer in the early music movement, and longtime music director at Boston’s historic King’s Chapel. With an A.B. and an M.A from Harvard University, his scholarship and work were recognized with a Fulbright Fellowship in 1950 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1962. He received six honorary degrees: New England Conservatory, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Adrian College, Westminster Choir College, Ithaca College, and the Boston Conservatory.